{"id":90567,"date":"2025-05-10T17:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T17:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/90567\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T17:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T17:16:08","slug":"bristol-v-bath-five-takeaways-bears-make-rivals-pay-in-premiership-race-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/90567\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol v Bath: Five takeaways Bears make rivals pay in Premiership race : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol defeated Bath 36-14 in a fierce battle at the Principality Stadium this afternoon as they took another step towards the Premiership play-offs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are our top five takeaways from the game:<\/p>\n

The top line<\/p>\n

It was a terrific occasion for all involved, with the Principality Stadium in Cardiff being used for the first time to host a Premiership match.<\/p>\n

Of the two sides from just over the Severn bridge, it was Bath who struck first. Big Joe Cokanasiga strode through the centre field, before offloading to the supporting\u00a0Ciaran Donoghue to score under the posts.<\/p>\n

For just a moment it looked as though the young Bath side were about to put the experience of Bristol to the sword, but that wasn\u2019t to be. It would take until the 54th minute for Bath to score again, by which time Bristol had scored four tries of their own and taken a comprehensive lead.<\/p>\n

The second Bath try appeared to reignite last year\u2019s finalists, particularly following two Bristol yellow cards, but the \u2018hosts\u2019 held it together to see the game off. Taking advantage of Bath\u2019s frenzied attack in the final five minutes, Bristol touched down with two final tries of their own to win 36-14.<\/p>\n

Bristol elite vs\u00a0Bath youngsters<\/p>\n

The message to Bath this afternoon from boss Johann van Graan was this: \u201cHave a go at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simply put, \u2018Go out there and have fun, the result doesn\u2019t really matter, we\u2019ll top the league no matter what.\u2019<\/p>\n

Whilst it did give the younger, less experienced, members of the squad an opportunity to enjoy all that top level Premiership rugby can have to offer \u2013 particularly in the cauldron that is the Principality Stadium \u2013 it did somewhat hamper Bath\u2019s form heading into the final stages of the season.<\/p>\n

The youthful exuberance of a dramatically altered Bath line-up was simply no match for a Bristol Bears first choice team that have honed their skills together in a cohesive unit all season, and who are also inspired to make the top four. The half-back combination of Harry Randall and AJ MacGinty were able to conduct the big and bruised alternative Bristol orchestra with expert precision throughout.<\/p>\n

Bath, on the other hand, found their wavelengths were in and out of tune, leading to an unfortunate number of knock-ons and mistakes, particularly as they entered the final thirds of the pitch.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Bulls player ratings: Willie le Roux the \u2018creative linchpin\u2019 in win over Cardiff<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bristol were not faultless, but adapted well<\/p>\n

Bristol found themselves on the referee\u2019s bad side early on after committing some rather cynical indiscretions. In fact, during the match, Bristol received four yellow cards in total, putting them fully against the cosh \u2013 particularly with Bath enjoying a two man advantage on two separate occasions.<\/p>\n

Benhard\u00a0Janse van Rensburg was very lucky to only receive a yellow after clearing an opposition player in the air, spinning him past the horizontal in the process, and\u00a0Joe Batley blatantly stole the ball from an upright player while he was led on the ground \u2013 still secured to a ruck.<\/p>\n

Many teams would have folded under the pressure put upon them during those periods of reduced players on the field, but Bristol held strong, with each member stepping up to ensure that the Bath attack would not make it over the try line.<\/p>\n

Wicked widemen<\/p>\n

It has to be argued that having\u00a0Kalaveti Ravouvou and\u00a0Gabriel Ibitoye as your wingers is a bit of a cheat code. Two of the most exciting wingers in world rugby on one team \u2013 both on fine form.<\/p>\n

Able to strut their stuff in an open and fluid game, both wingers were deadly with ball in hand and the try line in sight.\u00a0Ravouvou proved a terrifying sight in the final minutes as he galloped down the right hand wing to provide a major part in the two tries that would see the game off.<\/p>\n

Standings<\/p>\n

This victory has put Bristol into third place in the Premiership table, just four points behind Leicester Tigers in second, and three points ahead of Sale and Saracens who are both currently fighting for fourth spot. With two matches to play in the regular season, Bath are guaranteed top spot, while Bristol now look odds on to secure a play-off space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol defeated Bath 36-14 in a fierce battle at the Principality Stadium this afternoon as they took another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[5012,42949,381,748,393,126,20796,29982,4884,225,42950,42951,20797,12,6875,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-90567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bath","9":"tag-benhard-janse-van-rensburg","10":"tag-bristol","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-features","14":"tag-gabriel-ibitoye","15":"tag-gallagher-premiership","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-home-page","18":"tag-joe-batley","19":"tag-johan-van-graan","20":"tag-kalaveti-ravouvou","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-premiership","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114484673431796255","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}